The punishment, captured in a mobile telephone video circulated on Chinese social media, has been met with criticism.

"Since when does beating employees become a way of raising performance?" asked one Weibo user, Denny Tangmashi.

The training company declined requests by Reuters for comment, while telephone calls to the bank went unanswered and Jiang's mobile phone appeared to have been switched off.

In an online statement on Monday, the oversight body described the training as "improper," adding that it had suspended the bank's chairman and a deputy governor and told Jiang to make a public apology.

Some saw the punishment for the bankers and the trainer as inadequate, however.

"They need to be beaten with a stick!" wrote Weibo user Edison Li Jingyu.